This is the story of two women, born seven centuries apart, but connected by a series of mysterious and magical events. Ellen Bowe discovers she is the sole heir to an estate in Northern England, complete with manor house, castle, and ghostly visitations. Enndolynn Ware is being held captive by the Sheriff of Nottingham. She escapes with the help of four bold knights led by Rennwick de Beauvoir, a black-haired, green-eyed champion who has been charged to find the witch and take her to Burgundy. The lives of the two women are bound together by the archaic writings in the rose folio, by a document written by Stephen Langton, and by a birthmark they both share: the mark of the rose.